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Tag: Psalms

in the time of old age
Funerals and Feasts

It seems that Providence has brought me to more funerals than feasts lately. We thank God for those wedding feasts and monthly social gatherings of friends. Births of children and grandchildren bring great joy to the hearts of the living and memories of our aging generation.

But now that I have surpassed three score years and ten Solomon’s reminder returns my thoughts near to home more often.

Better to go to a house of mourning
Than to go to a house of feasting
Because that is the end of all mankind,

And the living puts this in his heart.
Ecclesiastes 7:2 Legacy Standard Bible

Heaven and earth – Glory and dust

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth

The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Psalm: 19:1 לַמְנַצֵּחַ מִזְמוֹר לְדָוִד׃ (WLC 19:2) הַשָּׁמַיִם מְסַפְּרִים כְּבוֹד־אֵל וּמַעֲשֵׂה יָדָיו מַגִּיד הָרָקִיעַ׃

Consider both the mourner and the reveler: they are without excuse in acknowledging that their flesh will wither and fail. All men and all women will bow down to our Maker, even those who fail to repent in dust and ashes during our brief days of glory.

תְהִלִּים (Psalm) 71

We are about to sing a Psalm – a plea to Almighty God:

O God, Do Not Forsake Me

Be to me a rock of habitation to which I may continually come;

You have given the command to save me,

For You are my rock and my fortress.

.. For You are my hope;

O Lord Yahweh, You are my trust from my youth..

My mouth is filled with Your praise
And with Your beauty all day long.

Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
Do not forsake me when my strength fails.
Psalm 71:9 Legacy Standard Bible

O God, do not be far from me;

O my God, hasten to my help!

.. O God, You have taught me from my youth,

And I still declare Your wondrous deeds.

And even when I am old and gray, O God, do not forsake me,

Until I declare Your strength to this generation,

Your might to all who are to come.

For Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the heavens,

You who have done great things;

O God, who is like You?
Psalm 71:18-19 LSB

You, who have shown me many troubles and evils,

Will revive me again,

And will bring me up again from the depths of the earth.

My lips will sing for joy when I sing praises to You;

And my soul, which You have redeemed.

My tongue also will utter Your righteousness all day long;

For they are ashamed, for they are humiliated who seek to do me evil.

Mourners and Scoffers

Observe three types of souls destined to live and breathe their last one day:
- The worshiper of God who lives out their days remembering the blessed ones of God.
- The scoffer who denies the One God, Creator of all things and Judge of all mankind.
- The Redeemed in Christ Jesus, the Son of Man, sacrificed for sinners (like us) that those who believe will be granted the resurrection of everlasting life.
Psalm 71 – Proclaimed as Gospel

GOOD News: Preached by Charles Spurgeon
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Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892), often known today as the Prince of Preachers, began his pastorate at London's New Park Street Church in 1854.. 
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A strong emphasis in Spurgeon’s preaching was God’s grace and sovereignty over man’s helpless state. He also knew well the terrible joy that comes only through suffering as he lived quite afflicted (both by illness and slander).

C.H. Spurgeon left this earth for his heavenly hope in 1892.
BlueLetterBible.org
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Just a few brief points from Spurgeon:
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- “In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust.” Jehovah deserves our confidence; let him have it all. Every day must we guard against every form of reliance upon an arm of flesh, and hourly hang our faith upon the ever faithful God. Not only on God must we rest, as a man stands on a rock, but in him must we trust, as a man hides in a cave.
- “Cast me not off in the time of old age.” Old age robs us of personal beauty, and deprives us of strength for active service; but it does not lower us in the love and favour of God.. To be forsaken of God is the worst of all conceivable ills, and if the believer can be but clear of that grievous fear, he is happy: no saintly heart need be under any apprehension upon this point.`
Spurgeon commentary – Verse 20.

Here is faith’s inference from the infinite greatness of the Lord. He has been strong to smite; he will be also strong to save.. and though I have been almost dead and buried, he will give me a resurrection, and “bring me up again from the depths of the earth.”

A Lament of Job

If a Man Dies, Will He Live Again?
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Job 14 LSB
“Man, who is born of woman,

Is short-lived and full of turmoil.
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“Like a flower he comes forth and withers.

He also flees like a shadow and does not stand.
Job 14:2
- “Who can make the clean out of the unclean?
- Man breathes his last, and where is he?
- “If a man dies, will he live again?
These are the QUESTIONS of a righteous man.

ARE you so right before Almighty GOD – Remembered, REDEEMED or simply a scoffer soon to be JUDGED?

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel
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Lent 2024 C.E. #1 in preparation for Easter 
+ To be continued, God-willing
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Talk of JESUS . com
March 6, 2024
Ghosts of Christmas’ Past
We are of course familiar with the image of ghosts of Christmas’ past thanks to Charles Dickens, ‘A Christmas Carol,’ penned in A.D. 1843. Dickens points toward a morality of generosity during a great 19th century division between a well-off gentry class and the working poor. Even today his theme of the repentance of Scrooge convicts on a larger Common Era world stage where poverty is no less common.
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My ghosts of Christmas Past include more than just Jacob Marley & friends. I remember when Christmas meant more than the sounds of shopping and included both worship and bells.
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Many Christian families had opened paper doors on Advent calendars reading familiar Scripture from Luke, Matthew and Isaiah in anticipation of opening personal gifts to each other on Christmas morning.

So in these links and lyrics below I invite you to hear some of what I hear from long-lost ghosts of Christmas’ past. And if you listen to every brief song while reading the lyrics and Scripture behind such glorious Christmas carols you may discover that same moment of transformation as Scrooge after his visits by three ghosts he had never seen.

The Ghost of Church Bells

Church Bells proclaiming JOY to the world within the sound of their pealing.

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

Henry W. Longfellow, A.D. 1864 Scripture: Luke 2:13-14; Romans 5:1

Lyrics by Henry W. Longfellow, 1864 alt. and v. 5-7 by Harlan D. Sorrell

Lyrics:

I heard the bells on Christmas day
Their old familiar carols play;
In music sweet the tones repeat,
“There’s peace on earth, good will to men.”

I thought how, as the day had come,
The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along th’ unbroken song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.

Born the Prince of Peace

And in despair I bowed my head:
“There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong, and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
“God is not dead, nor does He sleep,
For Christ is here; His Spirit near
Brings peace on earth, good will to men.”

When men repent and turn from sin
The Prince of Peace then enters in,
And grace imparts within their hearts
His peace on earth, good will to men.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.
Gospel of Luke 2:14 KJV

Christians who grew up during the mid-twentieth century will closely associate Christmas, Christmas carols, community fellowship of families on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day worship with church bells celebrating the birth of the Christ child.

Yet LISTEN?

The CHURCH BELLS have been rendered silent —

stilled from praise of the CHRIST child of CHRISTMAS —

in the SILENT nights and darkness of these last days…

A glorious joyful to the world RINGING of BELLS which once called both faithful and repentant Christians to WORSHIP has long ago rusted into an artificially staged sound of ME with the world AND Jesus.

A Silent Night..

and joyful singing..

now lost in the White noise of Christmas’ past ..

budding in every hand and ear..

of a multitude of the walking dead.

Could it have been your own wanderings with so many lost souls

for whom the bells once tolled..

church bells which today remain ominously SILENT?

Christmas Carols at our neighborhood doors
What was it we once SANG at the doors of our neighbors?

You with ears to hear, LISTEN and you with eyes to see, LOOK at the lyrics!
Joy to the World

Composer: George Frideric Handel – German-British Baroque composer (1685–1759)

Author: Isaac Watts (1719);

Adapter: Lowell Mason

Published A.D. 1839 in The Modern Psalmist, Boston

LOWELL MASON, THE BANKER WHO DISCOVERED ‘JOY TO THE WORLD’

He crusaded for better music, and heaven and nature sang
New England Historical Society

Psalm 98: King James Version
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O sing unto the Lord a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.

2 The Lord hath made known his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen.

3 He hath remembered his mercy and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.

4 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.

5 Sing unto the Lord with the harp; with the harp, and the voice of a psalm.

6 With trumpets and sound of cornet make a joyful noise before the Lord, the King.

7 Let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein.

8 Let the floods clap their hands: let the hills be joyful together

9 Before the Lord; for he cometh to judge the earth: with righteousness shall he judge the world, and the people with equity.
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Hark the Herald

Hark! the Herald Angels Sing – READ graphic of all the LYRICS

Peace on earth and mercy mild

God and sinners reconciled”

Christ by highest heaven adored..

Veiled in flesh the Godhead see

Hail the incarnate Deity

Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings..

Born that man no more may die
Born to raise the sons of earth
Born to give them second birth
Hark! The herald angels sing
“Glory to the newborn King!”

Jesus, the Creator Born to give us a second birth

And in despair I bowed my head

When men repent and turn from sin
The Prince of Peace then enters in,

And grace imparts within their hearts
His peace on earth, good will to men.

Hail the Son of Righteousness!
Light and life to all He brings

“Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”
Gospel of Luke 2:10b-12 ESV

Comment on Scripture – Share the Gospel

Will you invite JESUS to be more than a ghost of your Christmas’ Past?

For Christ was born that you might be born again to the eternal life given only through Him because the Lord has died for our sins.

MERRY CHRISTMAS.
December 23, 2023
How WE can get God’s Word right?
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Podcast - 3 min 30 sec
From time to time we recommend other sources of Scriptural resources to help Christians like you with your own personal social witness.

Barry Cooper explains how translations of the Bible from Latin, Greek and Hebrew led to the Protestant Reformation. 
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https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts/simply-put

Ad fontes is a Latin expression which means “[back] to the sources”. The phrase epitomizes the renewed study of Greek and Latin classics in Renaissance humanism. Similarly, the Protestant Reformation called for renewed attention to the Bible as the primary source of Christian faith. Wikipedia
July 4, 2023